Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, September 19, 1994 TAG: 9409220026
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By KATHY LOAN and STEPHEN FOSTER STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Medium
Officer Terry L. Griffith, 37, a 17-year veteran of the town department, died just before 9 p.m., about three hours after being shot once in the head with his own service revolver. He had been flown to Roanoke Memorial Hospital via LifeGuard-10.
The name of the suspect was being withheld pending notification of next of kin.
A deputy sheriff, Sgt. Billy Wiatt, was shot in the cheek as he and Griffith tried to take the man into custody after chasing him to Century Satellite Systems on Roanoke Street. Police said his wound was superficial.
The man then left the area in Wiatt's patrol car and was pursued to the Christiansburg Livestock Market on Depot Street. There, police said, he wrecked the patrol car and forced a citizen from another car at gunpoint.
The suspect eventually turned off Main Street onto Phlegar Street near Burger King, and drove off the road into a hedge. Deputies surrounded the car and ordered him out.
The man, according to police, emerged from the car with a gun, fired once, ran across the street to another deputy's vehicle and jumped in the driver's side. When he didn't follow deputies' commands to get out of the car, they opened fire and killed him.
Lt. Doug Marrs of the Christiansburg Police Department confirmed Griffith's death at a somber 10 p.m. news conference.
"Terry was a good officer and a family man ... like most of our people are," said a visibly shaken Marrs. He said arrangements are being considered to help officers get through the next few days.
Earlier Sunday, near dusk, hundreds of onlookers gathered at the scene of the final accident. Some watched from the Burger King parking lot; others looked down from the roof of Domino's Pizza or watched from a church across the street. About the cordoned-off scene, 19 cups with rocks atop them marked the places on the ground where shell casings fell.
Upon hearing Griffith had been shot, many whispered, "I know him."
Denny Lutz, a manager at Burger King, recounted the events for customer after curious customer. "Something like that just doesn't happen very often in a town like this, I hope," he said.
"He lost his life for a carton of cigarettes," said Karen Cox, a Burger King employee who heard the shots through the drive-through window.
Less than half an hour earlier, Betty Spangler, the store detective at Hills, said she had watched a man take a carton of cigarettes and slip them into his pants, then try to walk out the front door.
Spangler, 58, of Shawsville, said she whispered to a cashier to "get me some help," then followed the man toward the front of the store.
The man suddenly grabbed her by the arm - "I hadn't said anything to him," Spangler said - and tossed the cigarettes aside. She struggled with him, got him by the shirt and pulled it off, but he ran away.
Spangler and Hills operations manager Ronald Strauss said the man ran outside and jumped in a gray van. Spangler tried to keep him in the van, but he managed to push the passenger door open, and when he got out he had a can of mace.
She and Strauss backed off, and the man ran across the parking lot toward Roanoke Street.
Later, both still shaken, the two recounted what had happened.
"We've had them [shoplifters] run, but God, nothing like this," Spangler said. "He was crazy. It's a nightmare I wouldn't want to go through again."
The last time an officer was shot in the New River Valley was July 1990, when Montgomery County Sheriff's Deputy Robert F. Fleet took a bullet in the neck while trying to evict a man from his Ironto home. Fleet survived.
Fleet was one of more than a dozen officers responding to the shooting.
"We were friends, been friends for years. I've known him since he was a dispatcher. We always talked about going fishing. We never did go," Fleet said.
State Trooper Randy Tomkins said he rushed to Roanoke Street after he heard a "shots fired" call while on Interstate 81 near Christiansburg. He was one of the first officers to arrive after the shooting.
"I know any officer would do it for me. Terry would be one of the first," Tompkins said. "He's a good, honest, Christian, hard-working person. It seems like it always happens to the good guys."
Keywords:
FATALITY
by CNB